My mother, Pier, and my biological parents in Morocco taught me that education is one of the most important things in life, and the only way to change the world… A good day for me is when I learn something new. I adore learning and I want every girl to experience higher education, an opportunity that was not available for me until I moved to the United States.

I visited the United States for the first time at the age of seven.

Even though I had heard stories about life in America, I was blown away.

I had grown up in a village in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco of no more than two thousand people. Most people could find some family relationship with each villager. Everyone was either my cousin, uncle, or aunt. We dressed in a similar fashion (hand me downs), ate the same food (often shared with several families), prayed to the same god and spoke one language, Amazigh (Berber).